Felipe Massa Looking at Legal Options to Get 2008 Title Outcome Reversed

Former Ferrari driver and 2008 F1 world championship runner-up Felipe Massa is considering legal options to reverse the outcome of the controversial 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone recently revealed that there was a possibility of canceling the race result, where Nelson Piquet Jr crashed deliberately in the Renault, allowing Fernando Alonso to win the race. This result had huge ramifications for the world championship as Massa, thanks to a botched pitstop by the Ferrari crew when the crash happened, dropped him to 13th place from the lead of the race. Lewis Hamilton, who was crowned world champion that year, came third in the race, and Massa only lost the world championship to Hamilton by a point at the last race and last lap of the season.

"We decided not to do anything for now. We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal. That's why I used angelic tongues to persuade my former driver Nelson Piquet to keep calm for the time being," said Ecclestone, referring to Max Mosley, the then FIA president.

"We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have canceled the race in Singapore under these conditions. That means it would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton," said the 92-year-old billionaire.

Ecclestone added, "Back then, there was a rule that a world championship classification after the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year was untouchable. So Hamilton was presented with the trophy and everything was fine."

But Massa wants to challenge this rule.

"There is a rule that says that when a championship is decided, from the moment the driver receives the champion's trophy, things can no longer be changed, even if it has been proven a theft. At the time, Ferrari's lawyers told me about this rule. We went to other lawyers, and the answer was that nothing could be done. So I logically believed in this situation," said the Brazilian to Autosport.

"But after 15 years, we hear that the [former] owner of the category says that he found out in 2008, together with the president of the FIA, and they did nothing [so as] to not tarnish the name of F1. This is very sad, to know the result of this race was supposed to be canceled, and I would have a title. In the end, I was the one who lost the most with this result. So, we are going after it to understand all this," he added.

Massa, though, concedes that overturning what became seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton's first title will be hard.

"There are rules, and there are many things that, depending on the country, you cannot go back after 15 years to resolve a situation. But I intend to study the situation; study what the laws say, and the rules. We have to have an idea of what it is possible to do," he said.

"We have already seen other situations happening in sports, such as Lance Armstrong (cyclist), who was proven to have doped, and he lost all the titles. What is the difference?" he added.

The issue for Massa is that the FIA is the sole arbiter of motorsporting law and its rules state that he cannot challenge the result. In fact, challenging a result is often proven to be difficult because of which Mercedes also abandoned challenging the 2021 title results. 

But for Massa this is also about his legacy. In 2008 he became the lead Ferrari driver after Raikkonen had won the world championship in 2007. But in 2009 he had a crippling injury which needed brain surgery. When he returned to the sport after the injury he wasn't the same driver and had lost some of his edge which culminated in his exit from Ferrari by the end of the 2013 season.